Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/687

Rh long to Russia, Turkey, Persia, China, and Afghanistan. In religion the great majority are Mohammedans; a few tribes in Russia are baptized Christians; and some others adhere to the original Shamanism, which has also influenced the religious conceptions of the Christian and Mohammedan Turks. The principal Turkish peoples are the following. (I.) By a popular distinction the Turks of Siberia and Russia, with some colonies in Turkey, are styled Tatars (see ), though the Yakuts of northern Siberia are not usually included in this term. The Yakuts, who are perhaps a mixture of Turkish and Tungus tribes, deviating from the ordinary course of Turkish wanderings, are settled about the lower Lena, and number probably 200,000 (Rittig, 80,000; Lansdell, 210.000). They are nominally Christians. (II.) On the Kirghiz (Kara-Kirghiz and Kazilks) and Kara-Kalpaks see ; but note that the Kipchaks, named there as a separate tribe, really form a subdivision of the Kazak-Kirghiz, and are perhaps akin to the Kitai-Kipchaks, who are reckoned to the Uzbegs. (III.) Uzbeg is a political, not an ethnological denomination, originating from Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde (1312-1340). It was used to distinguish the followers of Shaib ani Khan (16th century) from his antagonists, and became finally the name of the ruling Turks in the khanates as opposed to the Sarts, Tajiks, and such Turks as entered those regions at a later date and are known to be Kirghiz, Kara-Kalpaks, or Taranjis. The Uzbegs are therefore a mixed race of different Turkish tribes. According to Kostenko, they number 201,972 in the Russian pro vinces of Sir-Daria, Ferghana, Zerafshan, and Amu-Daria, and Vambery conjectures that there are 1,000,000 more in Bokhara, 700,000 in Khiva, and 200,000 under Afghan supremacy, giving a total number of about 2,000,000. They are agriculturists or inhabit the cities; a few are semi-nomads. (IV.) The eastern Turks on the southern slopes of the Tian-Shan Mountains at Kashgar, Ustturfan, Ak-su, Sairam, Kutcha, Yarkand, Khotan, &c., are the rem nants of the ancient Uigurs; and of the same origin are the Taranjis ( = agriculturists), settled in the Hi valley and elsewhere. The number of the latter is given as about 50,000; that of the former may be estimated from the statements of Forsyth and Kuropatkin at about 1,000,000 for the whole district, the great majority being Turks and the rest Mohammedan Chinese (Sungans). (V.) The Turcomans (properly Turkmans) inhabit the steppe east of the Caspian and south of the Oxus from Astrabad to the Paropamisus. The term is sometimes taken to include their brethren in Persia and Asia Minor, who will be treated separately. The following are the principal tribes:—(1) the Tchaudors and Imrailis, in the north western part of the Ust-Urt to the Gulf of Karaboghaz; (2) the Yomuts, extending from Khiva across the Ust-Urt to the Caspian, and along the sea-board to Persia; (3) the Gbklen, on Persian territory, between the upper Gorgen and Atrek; (4) the Tekkes, the most numerous tribe at the present day, divided into the Akhal Tekkes and the Merv Tekkes, so named after the centres where their greatest numbers are found; (5) the Sakars, on the left bank of the Oxus, to the east of Tcharjui, considered by Vambery as a division of the Tekkes; (6) the Sariks, at Penjdeh and Yul-utan on the north-western slopes of the Paropamisus; (7) the Salors, one of the oldest Turkman tribes, who suffered greatly from the Tekkes, till they finally migrated (1857) to Zurabad in Persia, and left their former districts to the Tekkes and Sariks; (8) the Ersaris, on the Oxus about Khoja Salih; and (9) the Ali-elis, about Andkhui. Their total number, inclusive of some Turkmans who do not belong to any of these tribes, and are scattered throughout the provinces of Syr-Daria, Amu-Daria, Zerafshan, and Astrakhan (about 16,000), is estimated by Vambery at about 1,000,000, and by Grodekoff at 1,170,000. The Turkmans are, with few exceptions, nomads, and were formerly the terror of their neighbours, who feared them as the "man-stealing Turks"; but since Merv has been annexed to Russia (1884) they have been compelled to abandon their predatory habits. (VI.) The Turkish nomads scattered throughout Persia are partly the descendants of the Ghuzz tribes that invaded the country at the Seljukian period; others have migrated thither in the following centuries. They are known by the name of Ilāt or Iliyāt (meaning tribes or peoples) and consist of several tribes, having each its own chieftain, the Ilkham, appointed by the shah. An accurate list of the names of these tribes does not exist; but the most powerful and most numerous are the following. (1) The Kajars, who dwelt in Transcaucasia down to the time of Abbas the Great, by whom one division of them was compelled to settle at the south-east comer of the Caspian near Astrabad. To this division belongs the present dynasty of Persia. (2) The Afshars or Aushars, a very numerous tribe, in the province of Adarbaijan (Azerbijan). A division is also settled in the mountainous regions of the Antitaurus; its members are nominally subjects of the Ottoman empire but really independent. (3) The Shekakis and Shah-sewen. The latter is not a tribal, but a political name, meaning those who love the shah, i.e., partisans of the Safawl dynasty (1499-1736) and the Shī'ite faith. (4) The Kara Koyun-lu, near the town of Khoi, the remnants of the once powerful tribe named above. Besides these, many other names are recorded of tribes wandering in the Transcaucasian regions and in the provinces of Adarbaijan and Mazenderan, but many of them are very uncertain. All these Turks are Turks of comprehended under the general denomination of Adarbaijani southern Turks; they are nomads or semi -nomads and speak a peculiar Persia. Turkish dialect, the Turk Azeri or Adarbaijani Turkish. Some specimens of it have been published by Chodzko, Berge, Melgunoff, and Barbier de Meynard. In the southern provinces of Persia are settled the (5) Kashkais, (6) Abul-werdis, (7) Kara - Gozliis, (8) Bahar-lu, and (9) Inan-lu. To the first named are reckoned by some the Khalaches, an old Turkish tribe which was already settled near Herat before the Seljukian period and has given rise to some Indian dynasties. Vambery thinks that the total number of Iranian Turks may amount to about two millions, or, if we add the Caucasian Turks under Russian supremacy, three millions. (VII). The OsmanOsmanlis, under which term are comprehended all the Turkish sub- lis. jects of the sultan of Turkey, consist chiefly of the following elements. (1) Turkmanian tribes and Turks of every description, who poured into Asia Minor after the defeat of Romanus Diogenes (1071); to these've may also reckon the Ottomans proper, though they did not enter the country till after the downfall of the Kharizmian empire. The Mongolian invasion drove the obscure ancestors of this the most illustrious Turkish dynasty to Asia Minor, whence they gradually spread to the province of Khodawendikyar (Bithynia). (2) Tatars scattered amongst the rest of the population, but forming a large colony in the Dobrudja. In part they occupied their present settlements before the conquest of Constantinople; but others have immigrated into Asia Minor during the last two centuries from the Crimea and Caucasus, since the Russian conquests of those regions. They have fared very badly under Turkish rule, as is attested by Captain Wilson. That tribes of Turkish origin were settled in Europe long before the rise of the Ottoman power is known from the Byzantine authors, who mention a colony of them (about 30,000) as early as the 10th century in the Vardar valley in Macedonia. (3) The so-called Kizil-bashis or "Red Heads," a nickname of the Shi itic Turkish immigrants from Persia, who are found chiefly in the plains from Kara-hissar along Tokat and Amasia to Angora. During the wars with Persia the Turkish sultans forced them to settle here. They are agriculturists and highly praised by several travellers for their honesty and laborious habits. (4) Turkmenian tribes Yuruks and Gotchebes (words meaning "nomads" and characteristic of their most distinctive quality), who occupy the mountains in summer and descend into the plains in winter, though some are settled in the plains of Cilicia near Tarsus and Adana, the rest being semi -nomads. Reclus estimates the total number of Turks in Europe at 1,500,000 and 35,000 Tatars. For Asia Minor statistics are wanting; but P. de Tchihatchef, the chief authority for matters relating to this peninsula, thinks that 6,000,000 is a fair estimate for the total population, including Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, &c., but excluding the islands. It appears therefore necessary to reduce the already moderate number of Osmanlis given by Vambery (10,000,000) to about 6,000,000.

The Turkish, or, as some prefer to say, the Turco-Tatar language, is a member of the Ural-Altaic family (see ) and comprehends many dialects, which differ considerably in their vocabulary and in a less degree also in their grammar. The study of these dialects has made great advances during the 19th century. Abel Remusat in 1820 knew only of four, viz., the Uigurian, Jagatai, Tatar, and Osmanli. Beresine in 1848 distinguished nine teen, grouped round three types, viz., (1) Jagatai dialects (Uigur, Coman, Jagatai, Uzbegian, Turkmani, Kazani literary language); (2) Tatar dialects (Kirghizian, Bashkiri, Nogai, Kumi, Karatchai, KaraKalpaki, Meshtcheryaki, and Siberian); (3) Turki dialects (Derbendi, Adarbaijani, Krimmi, Anadoli, and Kumili). Bohtlingk (1851) added the Yakuti, and Shaw (1877) the Eastern Turki. Radloff (1882) subdivided the one Siberian dialect of Beresine into more than a dozen different dialects. On phonetic principles the last-named proposes the following classification, which seems, however, not quite satisfactory: (1) Oriental dialects (Altai, Baraba, Lebed, Tuba, Abakan, Kiiarik, Soyon, Karagass dialects, and Uigur); (2) Occidental (Kirghiz!, Irtish, Bashkir, and Volga dialects, with numerous subdivisions); (5) Central-Asiatic (Taranji, Jagatai, &c.); and (4) southern (Turkmani, Adarbaijani, Caucasian, Anadoli, Krimmi, and Osmanli). It would be premature to criticise this system till the author publishes the second part of his grammar, which will treat of the real etymological phenomena of the north Turkish dialects.